Greenwich upsets No. 1 Ridgefield in FCIAC boys lacrosse semfinals

David Fierro

Published 11:31 pm, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

NORWALK -- Since suffering a five-goal loss to Ridgefield in its season opener on April 2, the Greenwich High School boys lacrosse team has hoped it would get another chance to play the Tigers.

The Cardinals' second chance came Tuesday and they made the most of it.

Junior attack Luke Finneran's goal with 3:40 remaining lifted fourth-seeded Greenwich to a dramatic 6-5 victory over top-seeded Ridgefield in the semifinal round of the FCIAC Tournament at Brien McMahon High School.

Greenwich, which dropped a 10-5 decision to Ridgefield during the regular season and had lost its last three games against the Tigers, will play second-seeded New Canaan in Friday's 7 p.m. FCIAC championship game at Brien McMahon. The Rams posted a 5-3 win against third-seeded Darien in Tuesday's other semifinal.

"We definitely had our ego bruised the last time we lost to them," said Greenwich coach Scott Bulkley, who led GHS to the title in 2010. "We wanted another chance to play them. Anytime you lose to someone, you want to play them again, so you could prove to yourself that you can compete with them."

With Greenwich putting good pressure on Ridgefield, Finneran received a pass from Jamie Paradise and snapped a short shot past Ridgefield goalie Conor Shannon.

Ridgefield (15-3), which lost to New Canaan in last season's FCIAC final, had chances to score the equalizer in the frantic final few minutes. Daniel Ohrem and Timothy Cozens came close to knotting the score, but GHS goalie William Waesche made a clutch save on Ohrem's shot and Cozen's chance hit the post in the final 20 seconds.

"This win feels so good," Foote said. "It makes you feel that all the hard work you put in pays off. We felt disrespected after losing that first game to them, so we knew we had to come back strong today."

Ridgefield, which received two goals and one assist from sophomore Simon Mathias, was hurt on the faceoffs the whole game. Senior faceoff specialist Graham Savio gave Greenwich key possessions throughout, winning all but two faceoffs.

"Two things were the deciding factors, they won almost every faceoff and their goalie was great," said Ridgefield coach Roy Colsey, whose squad played without midfielder/faceoff man Will Bonaparte (back injury). "If you don't get the faceoff, that's a recipe for disaster."

Said Savio: "On the faceoffs, I was just hoping not to jump too soon or have any violations. I felt I could beat them if I didn't go early. This is such a great feeling."